top German baby names 2008

[Lori73]

A german friend just emailed me a list of top baby names in Germany in 2008, in case any one is interested!

GIRLS

1. Hannah/Hanna
2. Leonie/Leoni
3. Lea/Leah
4. Lena
5. Mia
6. Anna
7. Emilie/Emily
8. Lara
9. Laura

10. Sara/Sarah 11. Emma 12. Lili/Lilli/Lilly 13. Marie 14. Lina 15. Maja/Maya 16. Johanna 17. Sofie/Sophie 18. Neele/Nele 19. Sofia/Sophia 20. Amelie

BOYS

1. Leon
2. Lucas/Lukas
3. Luka/Luca
4. Timm/Tim
5. Fynn/Finn
6. Luis/Louis
7. Jonas
8. Felix
9. Paul

10. Maximilian 11. Max 12. Niklas/Niclas 13. Julian 14. Ben 15. Elias 16. Jan 17. Noah 18. Moritz 19. Philip/Philipp 20. Yannik/Yannick/Yannic/Jannik

no Hans?

Most of them look just like the names that are popular here to. Shame really, I like the idea of each country retaining distinctive naming conventions.

Some really nice names there.

No Wolfgang or Heidi either!

Oooh, those are so much nicer than the top UK list. I really like most of them.

That's funny, only Tim and Philip catch your eye really. Oh and Johanna and Neele on the girls' list. How is Neele pronounced?! Like Neill?

GooseyLoosey, I know what you mean. The power of media/internet/movies/books. We're all tuned into the same zeitgeist at the same time. The same names sound new and appealing at the same time in Germany, Spain, England, Ireland....

I just compared the list with the UK list and they are pretty much completely different. I don't see Jack, Alfie, Jaydon, Tyler etc on the German list...

Neele is pronounced Neeh-le (first syllable is a long 'eh').

Jack wouldn't work in German, as the German J is pronounced like an English 'Y', so it would be Yack - not very nice .

Does anyone know how Louis would be pronounced in German? Loo-is or Loo-ee?

I think it would be Loo-ee otherwise the S would be quite a strong S.

I love the name Lucas, was on my list of names for DS3.

Louis is pronounced with the S in German: Loo-is.

Thanks for that, thought that might be the case.

I don't think it's a new thing that the names are the same, after all we're very closely related languages! Hannah, Anna, Sarah, Marie (pron. maria in German) are all biblical, and names like Laura are native to most European languages. (I'm a Laura and have met French, Spanish, German and Italian Lauras - mainly pronounced Low-rra which I love, apart from in France where they pronounce it Loraaaaaaaa, which makes me cringe!)

what qumquat says, plus a lot of common names are saints names, so they will be found in most European countries
and of the remaining a lot are traditional names, mostly borrowed from the French, at a time when French culture dominated Europe